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Bad weather caused Osama to live for 24 hours?

Osama bin Laden, the leader of the banned terrorist organization Al-Qaeda was shot dead on May 2 in Abbottabad by U.S. Navy SEALs in a covert operation authorized by U.S. President Barack Obama. But new details coming from the U.S. officials reveal that Osama bin Laden would have been killed earlier on April 30 than on May 2 if the weather had not been bad in Pakistan.

Why did not SEAL team kill Osama on April 30 ?

Before any mission, the militaries contact their meteorological centres that tell them about the weather conditions of a particular place that is on their target. The people working in these weather stations must be accurate as the soldier’s life is at stake if their forecast goes wrong. Military meteorologists made the recommendation to delay the operation for 24 hours. Thus the plan of operation was dropped for the period of 24 hours.

Thunderstorm saves Osama bin Laden??

Rainfall in Abbottabad on a normal day

The information released from Pentagon on Monday (May 2) revealed many details of this mission. It showed that Osama bin Laden might have been killed a day earlier had the mission not been delayed by poor and bad weather conditions.

It’s been reported that the Navy SEAL team of the United States of America would have taken out Osama bin Laden on Saturday (April 30), but the mission was put on hold because of visibility issues for the safety of the solider’s helicopters for the next 24 hours. Poor visibility and strong winds was problem for them on Saturday, but calm weather on Monday night caused a successful mission that brought the world to standstill.

Weather conditions in Abbottabad on April 30

The western disturbance was moving from Upper parts of Pakistan to India on that day. The western system caused strong thunder activity in the northern parts of Pakistan including Abbottabad and Islamabad.

The visibility dropped to 3.0 kilometers in Abbottabad, Poor visibility means that you can see between 1 km to 4km. None of these conditions are ideal for conducting operations via low flying, fast moving Black Hawk helicopters. Apart from the thunder and poor visibility, the winds were also quite strong, the winds werer gusting to about 35 mph (55.6 km/h) on that day that caused the U.S Navy team to drop their plans of invasion and their mission of killing Osama bin Laden.

Moon also helped U.S on May 2?

Another benefit of the Sunday night operation (May 2) instead of Saturday night, was the presence of a new moon, which meant little to no additional brightness in the sky to possibly tip-off the inhabitants of the compound that a surprise was coming. Thus Osama bin Laden was successfully killed on May 2.